Firstly, I wanted to apologize to everyone who has been asking me for final shots of my completed theater! My wife and I had our first little girl (Rhyan) in the middle of last year and she has demanded all of my attention. By she, I mean my wife, LOL. I was finally able to compile all of my pictures and information to present to everyone. Looking back at my first post in this thread is incredibly nostalgic. I've noticed that I've deviated slightly from my original plan but such is life. Anyways, I'm not going to bore you with a bunch of chatting! Once again sorry for the huge delay...... on to the pics!

I also had the opportunity to have my theater featured in some publications

Well that's about it!! I can say that this journey was truly an amazing one and I'm sure it's not finished yet!! I haven't been able to enjoy the theater as much as I would like but the times I have had in there have been nothing short of BREATHTAKING! Even in my initial planning, I never imagined that it would come out so awesome. If you are reading this thread and are on the fence about building a dedicated home theater...two words.......DO IT!! There is plenty of support here to help you along the way. I've learned so much from AVSforum and this invaluable information helped me realize my dream!! I must say that I hope I can get back in the theater now that my daughter is getting a little older. Seems as though my family enjoys it more than I do, lol. My utmost gratitude to everyone here that helped make my dream a reality!! Please, if you have any questions, PM me or ask in this thread and I'll be sure to get back to you. Thanks again everyone!!!

So after a lot of lurking and snooping around, I've decided to start a build thread for those people who are extreme beginners, like myself. I've decided to start a home theater project in one of my guest bedrooms (I'm a Floridian and basements are non existent down here). Right now, I am just preparing the room for the future home theater. There was a half closet inside of the room which I knocked down to maximize space.

Here is the layout of the guest room where the madness will take place. The wall on the bottom of the picture is where the closet was.

Here is the layout of the room and my miserable attempt to show how I want it set up. I want to build a wall slightly recessed from where the closet was so that I can install an in wall dvd bookcase and an equipment rack.

The room is 13'10" length x 10'9" width x 8'3" height. Since this is preexisting construction, I was thinking of adding a 5/8 sheet of dry wall to the 4 walls with green glue. This will reduce the overall space of the room however, I am willing to take the loss if it will improve acoustics. My question is, will I be able to attach drywall to the preexisting walls with green glue without sanding or prepping? It should be noted that my walls are covered with "knockdown finish". Therefore, the surface of the drywall is textured. Secondly, the preexisting dry wall is 1/2 thick. Would that hinder the performance or make my doubling efforts null and void? Thanks in advance for you guys' help. I can't say that this will be an easy process as I am a complete beginner (in audio/visual and general contracting for that matter)!!

My eyes are immediately drawn to that riser. Are you planning for recliners or fixed seating there? What screen size are you planning? with the screen on the wall with the door, I think you are limited to about a 96" screen. That would be good for an 8' eyeball distance for the first row. Since the room is 13'10" that leaves about 5' for the riser. Not enough for a recliner and marginal even for fixed theater seating.

Take a look at my build thread (there is a link in my signature). My room is also small so you might be able to get some ideas. I decided to not go with a second row riser due to space but instead have a couch and recliner.

My eyes are immediately drawn to that riser. Are you planning for recliners or fixed seating there? What screen size are you planning? with the screen on the wall with the door, I think you are limited to about a 96" screen. That would be good for an 8' eyeball distance for the first row. Since the room is 13'10" that leaves about 5' for the riser. Not enough for a recliner and marginal even for fixed theater seating.

Hey Jayn,

Thanks for the quick response. I planned on having fixed seating due to the limited space I'm working with. I want this theater to look as realistic as possible and I would love the added benefit of using the riser as a bass trap. I haven't done any measurements for the length of the riser but I figured a 10 inch height should suffice? Please correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks!

is there anyway you can flip the door around to open out instead of in?

Beware, you may have building code problems with a door that doesn't swing into the room, especially with a bedroom. I have a door in the same position on my screen wall, so I decided to go with a pocket door to maximize the space. No good for soundproofing, but a great space saver!!

Do you really need a 10 ft wide shelving unit for DVDs/BDs? I would suggest cutting that down to half the size, and moving your door closer to the center of the room, maybe right past the 16" bump-out. This would clear the front of the room for stage and screen with the possibility of going AT with the speakers behind the screen.

I would also scrap the riser and go with a single row. I just feel like you'd be cramming way too much into a 13' deep room at that point, and a single row will simplify almost everything you want to achieve.

Plus, a single row in that room would be a much better candidate for a 7.1 over a 5.1 system, if that matters at all to you.

+1 to the door. It's probably best to have it open out as you will gain more room in the theater. That's what I am doing.

I will definitely be following your build thread....seems like where are working with similar space (or lack thereof, lol). I definitely plan on reversing the hinges. I was also thinking about extending the bottom wall all the way to the screen wall. That would give me a screen wall width of 145" as opposed to 129". My ultimate objective was to fit the monoprice muliformat screen on that wall.

Beware, you may have building code problems with a door that doesn't swing into the room, especially with a bedroom. I have a door in the same position on my screen wall, so I decided to go with a pocket door to maximize the space. No good for soundproofing, but a great space saver!!

Do you really need a 10 ft wide shelving unit for DVDs/BDs? I would suggest cutting that down to half the size, and moving your door closer to the center of the room, maybe right past the 16" bump-out. This would clear the front of the room for stage and screen with the possibility of going AT with the speakers behind the screen.

I would also scrap the riser and go with a single row. I just feel like you'd be cramming way too much into a 13' deep room at that point, and a single row will simplify almost everything you want to achieve.

Plus, a single row in that room would be a much better candidate for a 7.1 over a 5.1 system, if that matters at all to you.

The ultimate objective was to fit 6 people in the room. I was pushing for the riser so that I could really have that realistic "movie theater" experience although it would definitely be kind of cramped. In regards to the bump out, I am going to have a contractor come and look to see if it would be possible to align the bottom wall all the way to the screen wall, effectively eliminating the bump out and making the width of the whole room the same. In regards to the door, that is a really good idea! I never thought about a pocket door. I just need space for the door to recess into....

I originally planned to have a pocket door in my room but then quickly decided not too when I realized soundproofing was more important. If you plan to do double drywall with green glue then I would definitely not get a pocket door and go with a solid core door instead.

In regards to screen size, I would be careful about getting something too big. At my old house I had a 120" 16:9 screen with about an 8 foot viewing distance and it was too big. You had to physically move your head to see the whole thing which was very distracting and took away from the moving watching experience. Sometimes bigger isn't always better.

Thanks aaustin. I will measure and draw on the wall a 120 as opposed to a 106 and see the differences.

I have a question regarding room acoustics. As stated before, my guest bedroom already has standard 1/2thick drywall installed complete with texturized "knockdown" finish. Would it be possible to green blue and use another sheet of 5/8 drywall? or are the acoustic benefits of using two 5/8 sheets of drywall worth demolishing and starting from scratch?

(It should be noted that 2 walls are exterior concrete walls, the other two are interior walls.)

As stated before, my guest bedroom already has standard 1/2thick drywall installed complete with texturized "knockdown" finish. Would it be possible to green blue and use another sheet of 5/8 drywall? or are the acoustic benefits of using two 5/8 sheets of drywall worth demolishing and starting from scratch?

Hey Ted, a few years back, wasn't 1/2 + 5/8 actually recommended, I guess the thinking being that they'd have different resonances?? But then testing showed that 5/8 + 5/8 was actually a bit better due to more mass?

Different materials have different resonance points. Different thicknesses of the same material have different resonance points also, just as you say. The thought was to have each layer resonate at a different frequency, and lessen the severity at any given frequency. Given that you went with 1/2" + 5/8" to accomplish this, you knowingly sacrificed the mass you could have had with double 5/8".

In practice, this mixed thickness strategy was always debatable since the more thoroughly you bond the dis-similar layers, the more they will behave as a new single layer, with a completely different resonance point.

After competent damping compounds arrived and removed a great deal of panel resonance, we went for the mass advantage of double 5/8". No practical or theoretical advantage to mixed thickness panels at this point.

so just a quick update. I found a contractor who will do most of the drywall work and soffits....Green Glue has arrived (i felt pictures of the green glue is pointless because we all know what it looks like....lol). I have a question about wiring/wallplates. I don't have enough space to build a screen wall/stage in front. Therefore, my floorstanding and rear surround speakers will be seen. What's the best wiring method to run cable to these speakers? I was thinking about two wall plates for the rear surrounds and two wall plates for the front L/R speakers?

so just a quick update. I found a contractor who will do most of the drywall work and soffits....Green Glue has arrived (i felt pictures of the green glue is pointless because we all know what it looks like....lol). I have a question about wiring/wallplates. I don't have enough space to build a screen wall/stage in front. Therefore, my floorstanding and rear surround speakers will be seen. What's the best wiring method to run cable to these speakers? I was thinking about two wall plates for the rear surrounds and two wall plates for the front L/R speakers?

Don't forget about the center channel as well in your wall plate count. I just received wall plates (banana plug type) link here from monoprice and they are very high quality and at a good price too.

Yup those are the same ones that I got. I also bought a wallplate with two speaker terminals for the front left and front right speakers so that I would have the option to bi-amp. I also got a wall plate for the sub RCA cable as well as some Ethernet and HDMI (I like cable neatness ).

Thanks RTROSE, I was looking at those too. I suppose I would buy 5 individual wall plates and install them on the wall directly behind each speaker (going 5.1 for now) I hate wires showing like aaustin....lol

I'm not sure who you're working with on the soundproofing design, but have they not suggested removing all te drywall to decouple? With no decoupling you're likely not going to be happy with the bass isolation.

I'm not sure who you're working with on the soundproofing design, but have they not suggested removing all te drywall to decouple? With no decoupling you're likely not going to be happy with the bass isolation.

Also what are the plans for outlets and ventilation in the room? I would think it would be difficult to soundproof those flanking paths if the drywall is already up.